UC Davis Announces $5 Million Commitment To Establish New Institute for Innovation and EntrepreneurshipInstitute Builds on Success of UC Davis Graduate School of Management’s Center for Entrepreneurship

(Davis, CA) — The University of California, Davis, is launching a new interdisciplinary institute devoted to education, research and outreach in innovation and entrepreneurship, with the help of a $5 million commitment from alumni Mike and Renee Child.

The institute, named The Child Family Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, will help to integrate innovative and entrepreneurial thinking and actions across the university, and strengthen UC Davis’ role as a vital player in catalyzing economic development in the region, state and beyond.

“The Child Family Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship will help UC Davis assume a global leadership role in entrepreneurship and innovation, building on our already strong foundation in these areas,” said Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi. “We are grateful to the Childs for making this possible.”

The institute, which launches today, builds on the success and experience of the UC Davis Center for Entrepreneurship, which since 2006 has helped researchers and students move their innovations and ideas into the marketplace. The center’s founding director, Professor Andrew Hargadon, is now serving as the institute’s faculty director.

Over the past five years, the center had a significant impact regionally, across the country, and across continents. Alumni of the center have launched more than 45 companies in areas ranging from medical diagnostics to solar power to biodegradable plastics. The center’s programs have helped more than 650 graduate students, postdocs and faculty researchers explore the commercial applications of their ideas and connect them with business investors and industry careers.

“UC Davis is committed to improving society by bringing breakthrough technologies out of the university and into the world and by preparing our students to be entrepreneurial leaders, regardless of their academic field,” said Steven Currall, the dean of the Graduate School of Management, which will house the new interdisciplinary
institute.

The institute will strengthen the coordination of entrepreneurship and innovation activities across UC Davis’ colleges, schools, centers and organized research units, becoming the university’s unifying structure for these pursuits.

For example, the institute will help facilitate such current UC Davis initiatives as: the Biotechnology Program in the Office of Research, the College of Engineering’s Engineering Translational Technology Center, the Science and Technology Studies Program in the College of Letters and Science, and the Center for Science and Innovation
Studies, among others.

“UC Davis is home to an amazing array of expertise across disciplines. This institute will help our faculty and students translate their knowledge and skills into ventures that improve society and add value to the economy,” said Hargadon, who is a professor of technology management at the Graduate School of Management and holds the Charles J. Soderquist Chair in Entrepreneurship.

The institute will develop and demonstrate the commercial potential of UC Davis research in science, engineering and medical fields where UC Davis is already a recognized leader and is engaged with industry and policy partners. These areas include the work of the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences; the Energy Efficiency Center; the Clinical and Translational Science Center; the Center for Biophotonics, Science and Technology; and the Institute for Transportation Studies, among others. The institute will also foster innovation and entrepreneurship for students in the humanities and social sciences.

“I applaud the creation of this institute, which will provide unique resources to ensure that the cutting-edge knowledge generated at UC Davis is applied, disseminated and commercialized in ways that benefit society,” said Claire Pomeroy, the CEO of UC Davis Health System. “This institute will advance the innovative spirit that flourishes at UC Davis.”

Promote the study of innovation and entrepreneurship by management, social science, humanities and legal researchers across the university.

Support the MBA-student-run Big Bang! Business Plan Competition.

Expand UC Davis’ pioneering and nationally recognized business development certificate programs and entrepreneurship academies for faculty, doctoral students and postdoctoral researchers in the life sciences and engineering and for graduate students in business designed to help move ideas from lab to market.

Develop opportunities for innovation and entrepreneurship for undergraduate students across the university, including those in social sciences and humanities.

Further programs to build networks that connect campus entrepreneurs with mentors and investors to accelerate commercialization

Reach out to business and government to inform the adoption of

innovative technologies.

The Childs’ $5 million commitment will be invested in an endowment, ensuring ongoing financial support for the institute and its important work into the future.

The Childs have also recently made several other generous gifts to UC Davis, to support other areas of great interest to them. These gifts include:

An endowed scholarship fund to support students at the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing

An endowed research fund at the Center for Mind and Brain to function as “seed” funding for preliminary research that has the potential to lead to major scientific breakthroughs

Support for current research in the College of Engineering’s Engineering Translational Technology Center, to help engineering faculty, faculty emeriti and students in bringing their research ideas to the marketplace as commercial businesses

“With their gifts, the Childs have made tremendous philanthropic investments to advance innovation across UC Davis,” said Enrique J. Lavernia, dean of the College of Engineering. “This support for the Child Family Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship and the Engineering Translational Technology Center will foster symbiotic relationships and have a great impact in transferring innovations to the marketplace.”

Mike Child graduated from UC Davis in 1976 with a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering. Renee Child also graduated from UC Davis in 1976, with degrees in psychology and German. One of their daughters is a UC Davis student, and the other is a recent UC Davis graduate. The couple lives in Atherton, Calif.

In addition to serving as a trustee on the UC Davis Foundation board, Mike Child is also a member of the Campaign Cabinet, a group of volunteer leaders that is guiding the university during its first comprehensive fundraising campaign. Renee Child is a member of the College of Letters and Science’s Deans’ Advisory Council, a volunteer
group that advocates for and advises the college.

“We are very pleased to be able to support UC Davis’ remarkable work across diverse disciplines,” Mike Child said.

“UC Davis provided us with an excellent education, and we’re happy to be able to give back to this outstanding university,” Renee Child said.

Their contributions will be counted as part of The Campaign for UC Davis, a universitywide initiative to inspire 100,000 donors to contribute $1 billion in support of the university’s mission and vision.

Editor’s note: High resolution photos of Dean Steven Currall and institute director Andrew Hargadon are available upon request, and both Currall and Hargadon are available for interviews.

About the Graduate School of Management

The UC Davis Graduate School of Management is consistently ranked among the premier business schools in the United States and internationally. The school has nearly 600 MBA students enrolled in Full-Time MBA and Working Professional MBA programs on the UC Davis campus, in Sacramento and in the San Francisco Bay Area. U.S.News & World Report ranks UC Davis among the top 6 percent of MBA programs in the nation. The Economist ranks the school’s faculty quality No. 6 in the world. Learn more at gsm.ucdavis.edu.

To accomplish this, the institute brings science, engineering and business students and faculty together with experienced entrepreneurs, investors and corporate leaders in an highly collaborative environment that blends effective theory with hands-on participation and solution-driven innovation.

UC Davis has landed a $5 million commitment with which to create a new institute for innovation and entrepreneurship. The commitment from UC Davis alums Mike Child and Renee Child will transform the UC Davis Center for Entrepreneurship into a larger institute that can do much more, and which will have stable funding for years to come. “UC Davis is home to an amazing array of expertise across disciplines,” Hargadon said in the release. “This institute will help our faculty and students translate their knowledge and skills into ventures that improve society and add value to the economy.”

This article reports on the new interdisciplinary institute devoted to education, research and outreach in innovation and entrepreneurship at UC Davis, with the help of a $5 million commitment from alumni Mike and Renee Child. The institute will strengthen the coordination of entrepreneurship and innovation activities across UC Davis’ colleges, schools, centers and organized research units, becoming the university’s unifying structure for these pursuits.

(Davis, CA) — The UC Davis Part-Time MBA program offered in Sacramento and the San Francisco Bay Area is ranked among the top 9% in the U.S., according to U.S. News & World Report’s latest graduate business school rankings.

At No. 29, this is the fourth consecutive year the UC Davis Part-Time MBA program is among the top AACSB International-accredited part-time MBA programs surveyed. This year, there were 323 part-time MBA programs surveyed.

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